Linear Search Applications

We use linear search in following things:

• For search item in the smaller array.
• For fast searching 
The time complexity of the above algorithm is O(n).

Please refer complete article on Linear Search for more details!

Given an array arr[] of n elements, write a function to search a given element x in arr[]. 

ALGORITHM for Linear Search

Step 1: Start 
Step 2: Declare an array and search element as key.
Step 3: Traverse the array until the number is found.
Step 4: If the key element is found, return the index position of the array element
Step 5: If the key element is not found, return -1
Step 6: Stop.

Pseudocode for Linear Search

PROCEDURE LINEAR_SEARCH (LIST, VALUE)
  FOR EACH ITEM IN THE LIST
     IF SAME ITEM == VALUE
          RETURN THE ITEM’S LOCATION
     END IF
  END FOR
END PROCEDURE